article - pulp issue # 1

Article: The Eraserheads

Magazine: Pulp

Year: December 1999

Volume: No. 1

Catalog: 

Writer: Jennifer E. Adriano (photographs by dulzzi gutierrez)

Updated 14-Jan-2020

The Eraserheads

They started out as flukes who bucked the trend of the Philippine recording industry's sanitized stereotypes and ended up the biggest band of the decade - and perhaps, of their generation. Originality, tongue-in-cheek songwriting wit, and a zest for the unpredictable have made the Eraserheads the definitive breakthrough Pinoy alternative act, shattering the mellow mode that formerly reigned as the undisputed route to record sales and paving the way for latter-day successes like Parokya ni Edgar.

It all began in 1989 at a University of the Philippines dormitory with four college blokes - Ely Buendia, Buddy Zabala, Raymund Marasigan, and Marcus Adoro - and a bunch of secondhand instruments. They became a band and took their name from a David Lynch movie they wouldn't see until years later.

The Eraserheads initially did the rounds of alternative joints doing covers of bands like REM and The Cure. Realizing that they didn't do too well singing other people's songs, they tried their hand at writing. "After all, if we committed a mistake [performing], at least no one would recognize it because they wouldn't know the song," says Ely. Live performances featuring their punchy, original lyrics gained them a cult following in school, and news of their talent spread beyond campus. Next were the requisite rounds of radio stations and record companies, but the Eraserheads' "novelty" songs were rejected at every turn.

They released an independently produced cassette called Pop-U in 1991, in reaction to the "not pop enough" comment of recording gurus who had dissed their demos. Soon afterwards, BMG Records got hold of Pop-U and signed the band on for a three-year contract. By 1993, the Eraserheads released ultraelectromagneticpop!, titled in homage to the mighty Voltes V weapon.

Their multi-platinum debut album included now legendary hits like "Ligaya," "Toyang," and the beer-bottle ballad "Pare Ko" with its notorious sprinkling of cuss words.

Before the Heads could be labeled a flash-in-the-pan-one album-wonder, they released an equally successful follow-up, Circus, a year later. Several other hit-producing albums came in succession, along with numerous NU Rock, Awit and Katha music awards, and the 1997 International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Asia for the video of "Ang Huling EL Bimbo," off the group's third album, Cutterpillow.

The eclectic Heads have dabbled in other creative ventures, from penning a commercial jingle for a hamburger chain ("Halika Tikman Ang Langit," included in their EP Bananatype) to Fruitcake the book, edited by one-time Heads manager Jessica Zafra, containing the "one thousand and one adventures" behind the songs contained in their 1996 Christmas album of the same title. "Right now we're working on a movie. It'll be a comedic effort," says Buddy. Before one can bring up their what-were-they-thinking? cameo in the forgettable Joey de Leon-starrer of yore, Run, Barbi Run, Ely interjects, "We can’t act, so our movie will focus on our music."

Another thing on the Heads' agenda is the logical bid for international stardom. The first step was Aloha Milkyway, released last year in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, including nine remastered and re-recorded chart-topping songs from previous albums, plus new releases "Julie Tearjerky" and "Tamagotchi Baby." The group is currently promoting Natin99, their latest and first all-Tagalog album, released last May with the carrier single "Maselang Bahaghari.”

Perhaps one of the Eraserheads' most sterling achievements is the fact that all original members remain intact after 10 years as a band and seven years in the sink-or-swim mainstream music industry. "Other bands that came out around the same time as we did, like The Youth, are gone now, probably because they didn't really enjoy playing together in the first place," reflects Raymund. "Some just got bored, others hit a brick wall." Buddy continues, "We've been through the worst periods when there was no money, no shows, no fans. Everything else is relatively easy." Doesn't it ever become, well, like work? "It is a job," Ely pipes in. "Why not make it fun?"

"We still trip out when we hear that younger kids start bands, because of us. Even if their sound is different from ours, it's great knowing we inspire that kind of thing," says Raymond. Meanwhile, as teens in garages over the archipelago continue to work their amps in the hopes of becoming the next Eraserheads, the group that started it all still hasn't quite come to term with fame. "It remains a double-edged sword," Raymond accedes. But there's more from where that came from in store for the Heads, whose musical evolution is still, after all, a work in progress. In the words of Buddy, with a smile: "I guess it still isn't as good as it gets-not yet." - Jennifer E. Adriano

Photographs by Dulzzi Gutierrez